How can we ensure that Trans* and Gender Non-Conforming people will feel welcome, safe, and cherished in our congregations? Join us as we explore what it means to be Trans*/gender variant and how to help our congregations invite and celebrate such differences as part of God’s beloved community.

Discover where a new generation of MCC churches are now forming! This workshop will introduce the MCC Global Emerging Churches Program, describe new ways and places that MCC Emerging Churches are appearing, and participants will also meet a few of the emerging Ministry Leaders. Bring your questions to this interactive and International workshop.

Refresh and expand your HIV knowledge base. This workshop will cover: modes of transmission, prevention methods and HIV prevention science 2.0, treatment of HIV and AIDS, latest medical updates and recommended vaccinations for the general public and at risk populations. We will also explore HIV and its stigma. We will learn the definition of stigma and its ramifications in regard to HIV/AIDS, address the question, “Does HIVE stigma exist in MCC?”, examine how stigma influences and is woven into our daily lives and how those attitudes are exhibited in our churches, explore ways we can combat HIV stigma in MCC, and review a case study and testimony of how a MCC church responded to HIV/AIDS.

Can you imagine MCC beyond church walls to connect individuals, small groups, and spiritual communities as MCC in new and exciting ways? We are creating a global MCC community, from New York to New Delhi; Capetown to Bejing and beyond. We invite you to open the door and explore MCC Oasis, “A spiritual respite in a hectic and ever-changing world.” A place where all are welcome…to learn, be inspired, seek justice, and feed their spirit; on-line, in gatherings, and in many different ways. Are you curious about this new way to BE MCC; without walls or borders? If so, come and see…

Knowing that dismantling systemic racism requires the initiative and responsibility of people of European descent, the newly appointed Racial Reconciliation Working Group is charged to equip people of European descent to develop relationships of greater mutuality with peoples of colors, to increase awareness of the scope and power of white privilege within U.S. culture as well as its ongoing impact around the globe, and to develop attitudes and practices within MCC that facilitate the full inclusion of peoples of colors. Intended to be a conversation among people of European descent, this workshop is designed to begin engaging this work so essential to our emerging future.

2: Justice

The United Methodist Church has been at a stalemate over the ordination of gays and lesbians and same-sex marriage, but a decision at the recent General Conference offers hope for a way forward. This workshop will address this ongoing debate in light of historic conversations about the leadership of African Americans and women in Methodism.

Rev. Danny Givens has been an activist with the Black Lives Matter movement from its inception. He will address capacity building and sustainability in the ongoing battle for human rights and equality.

Activists working with the GJI will offer updates on our movement and projects in Asia, Latin and Central America, the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and Africa, making connections with other human rights movements on the ground and providing opportunities for involvement. Learn how you and your Church can be involved in supporting those who are transforming the world in their own contexts.

This workshop will feature a 32 minute documentary that explores the evolution of the modern day African-American civil rights movement to engender LGBTQ equality as a key social justice issue. Subsequent to the screening of “BRAVE SPACES”, this workshop will engage in a robust and dynamic conversation on the moral imperative of the LGBTQ movement embracing racial justice, as an essential principle in our individual and collective efforts. Together, we will embrace and model the requisite courage necessary to listen and learn from each other ways to address racism and xenophobia within the LGBTQ movement towards becoming the beloved community as called for by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. All people and voices are welcomed with radical hospitality and deep respect.

Rev. Jim Merritt and Rev. Jorge Rivas Delgado will be joined by other activists from around the globe, offering regional updates and strategies for dealing with opposition, the religious exemption movement, and the religious right.

3: Healthy Churches

MCC has been known as “The Gay Church,” “The Church With AIDS,” and “The Human Rights Church.” How are you known in your community? What is your brand and tag line? This workshop will look at the range of MCC brand images in our denomination. We will look at the MCC Brand resources that are available to all MCC pastors/leaders and explore how using common brand materials helps everyone.

Like many of our own personal finances, church funds are more and more frequently managed online. We have squares and triangles, iPads and Paypal accounts, and direct bank transfers into and out from our accounts. Our time-tested safeguards like requiring two signatures on checks, and making sure that at least two people count the offering, are no longer adequate to protect our church funds from theft. If you are a board member, pastor, or part of the administrative team at your church, this workshop is for you.

Stewardship is about more than money; it is about how we use all of our resources to respond generously to the goodness of God. One of the wonderful resources we have in MCC is a number of churches of different sizes and different places who have worked extremely well on their stewardship. As excellent stewards, these congregations will generously share what has worked for them and lessons they have learned along the way. This workshop will provide take-home resources appropriate for any church member, but especially for lay leaders, boards, and pastors.

Do you wish your congregation would be more involved in their spiritual lives? Do you offer programs people say they want but then don’t attend? Are you stretched so thin you can’t see a way to offer additional programs? Do you need more entry points to your church? Do you want to see your congregants become more involved in ministry to others and spiritual growth for themselves? Do you want a church leadership model that is not top down? If you answered yes to any of these, this workshop is for you! We promise to offer you substantive information, usable and duplicable tools, along with practical experience. These will be your take-aways:

A new model for programming in your church

A systematic way to define and build more vibrant ministry (programming)

Guidelines for working together as a team to increase people’s participation in their own spiritual life beyond worship (All of us is smarter than one of us)

Tried and true ways to create interest in and commitment to spiritual growth and increasing depth.

Access to high quality resources already prepared and written by MCCers to get you started.

For far too long, openly LGBTQ youth and adults were banned from the Boy Scouts of America. Over the past several years, Scouts for Equality led a public campaign to end that policy. With that era of discrimination having come to a close, we have a unique window of opportunity to bring an inclusive Scouting program to a new generation of youth. Participants will learn details of the past policies that weren’t shared publicly, gain a greater understanding of why Scouting in America has yet to become gender-integrated, and learn how their congregations can join other MCC congregations in starting inclusive Scouting programs.

Does it ever seem that just when your church is making progress, something happens that sidetracks the momentum? Many churches fail to fulfill their mission because they are mired in unhealthy patterns-interpersonal relationships, lay/clergy roles, and/or communication styles. Drawing from experience in churches from 30 people to 300, let’s talk about establishing shared agreements (the easier part) and actually changing behavior long-term (the harder part).

From the time of the earliest church to now, the clerical vocation remains itinerant. Clergy serve a community for a season and will be called to leave someday in order for the church and pastor to find fresh possibilities for mission. This session will allow lay and clergy alike to explore the dynamics of pastoral transition and the denominational support available. Come join the staff, faculty and mentors of OCLH transition support programs to learn more about this in-between period with its practical and archetypal value for spiritual transformation and community renewal.

The scenario: Two historically inclusive progressive churches on the same street, with the same core values, are having vastly different experiences. One is in decline and the other is thriving. What is going on? In this workshop we will keep it real and learn how the Spirit in Christ is turning around inclusive ministries and churches with inspiration, innovation and reignited missional imagination. Balancing the practical and gloriously impractical, we will explore current revitalization movements and ancient spiritual wisdom to become once again “the Repairers of Broken Walls and Restorers of Streets with Dwellings.” (Isaiah 58:12b)

4: Worship

How to Bring General Conference Worship HomeTime/Location: Friday, 4:30-5:00pm- Carson HallTrack: WorshipPresenters: The General Conference Worship Planning Team

Learn the techniques the General Conference Worship Team used to create and implement Worship. This session will cover: planning techniques, how to create multi-sensory worship, writing liturgy, how to create diversity in worship and offer some resources for all church sizes to use.

MCCers come from many walks of life… From different countries and regions within those countries, speaking many languages, of varied races, ethnicities, abilities, ages, and church experiences (or no church experience at all), with diverse identifications of gender and sexuality… And yet, we are all called to worship the One who created us all in all our beautiful diversity. Together, we will explore and experience some ways, even without big budgets or multiple staff, that we might approach worship to be intentionally multicultural and radically inclusive, to more fully embody the Beloved Community that is God’s dream. This workshop is for anyone who participates in, plans, and/or leads worship

Would you like to develop a worship team that consistently produces vital and passionate worship – without getting burned out? Dr. Marcia McFee worked with the General Conference Worship Team to plan the incredible conference worship experiences. Come learn how to recruit and train worship arts teams to create inspirational, meaningful, and memorable worship.

Interested in exploring various aspects of the art of the songwriter? Join Bobby Jo Valentine for some thoughts on the craft of songwriting, crafting songs from your story through a redemptive light, and general thoughts on supporting creative art in your community. A combination of lecture, storytelling, and Q and A.

5: Leadership

So often, we think that if we could just get a great building, great staff, great programs, we could get people to “come and see” what church is about and join us. Those are all wonderful things, but what if we got out of our buildings, if all of our members were involved, if we moved out into the world around us to “go and be” the church and join God where the Spirit is already moving? That’s what it means to be a missional church, and it is not just another program, but a total transformation from the inside out, embodying here and now where God calls us to go and be as a church. This workshop is for anyone who wants a different way to think about and to be church together in our 21st century world.

Virtual technology has made it possible for people to connect as well as deepen their learning and spirituality. This workshop will explore philosophical and pedagogical approaches to on-line learning as well as present some practical tools for using on-line technology.

This is a discernment workshop—a workshop that helps participants listen to the God of their understanding through their own life experience and knowledge of their gifts. It also helps them identify what they are most passionate about. When people are able to work their passion, their work lives are much more enjoyable and meaningful, and their work is more effective because it is infused with Spirit. Understanding one’s work as sacred calling can also strengthen and increase one’s sense of purpose, resourcefulness, and capacity for creating lasting change.

As MCC prepares to welcome a new Moderator, this workshop will provide opportunities for participants to have a Holy Conversation about leadership transitions, using the format developed by MCC Theologies Team.

This session, inspired by the recent online symposium sponsored by the Office of Formation and Leadership Development, seeks to advance MCC’s ongoing commitment to integrating sexuality and spirituality, by offering an opportunity to speak honestly about how we might tangibly address this issue in our congregations. The gathering will begin with a panel of diverse MCCers who will each speak to an issue embracing sex and spirit, followed by group discussion that will both respond to and go beyond our panelists’ remarks.

Do you wish your congregation would be more involved in their spiritual lives? Do you offer programs people say they want but then don’t attend? Are you stretched so thin you can’t see a way to offer additional programs? Do you need more entry points to your church? Do you want to see your congregants become more involved in ministry to others and spiritual growth for themselves? Do you want a church leadership model that is not top down? If you answered yes to any of these, this workshop is for you! We promise to offer you substantive information, usable and duplicable tools, along with practical experience. These will be your take-aways:

A new model for programming in your church

A systematic way to define and build more vibrant ministry (programming)

Guidelines for working together as a team to increase people’s participation in their own spiritual life beyond worship (All of us is smarter than one of us)

Tried and true ways to create interest in and commitment to spiritual growth and increasing depth.

Access to high quality resources already prepared and written by MCCers to get you started.

In our rapidly changing world, how can leaders in MCC prepare others to move with God’s Spirit into the future? Mentoring is essential for leaders of teams, in congregations, in organizations, in movements, to help new and emerging leaders learn and grow. In mentoring others, leaders establish a relationship of trust by sharing lived experiences and wisdom. In so doing, those mentored can be encouraged and empowered to live and lead authentically and the mentors themselves are enriched as leaders. This workshop is for leaders of all kinds who want to develop their own leadership as they develop new and emerging leaders. In this interactive workshop, we will explore together the origins of mentoring, examine some examples of mentoring, and gain understanding of some of the best practices of mentoring.

More Than General Conference: The Role of the Lay DelegateTime/Location: Thursday, 4:00 – 5:30 PM – EsquimaltTrack: LeadershipPresenters: Elder Professor Nancy Maxwell and Robert Pope

This workshop will explore the role of the Lay Delegate beyond the responsibilities of General Conference. The Lay Delegate serves as the liaison between the local church and the denomination. Being elected by the local congregation to represent the local church offers many opportunities to be a servant leader who helps to identify the connection between the local community and the worldwide movement of MCC. Effective strategies for strengthening the role of the Lay Delegate in the local congregation, the Network and the denomination will be discussed.

Are our MCC congregations welcoming to the “B’s” in the LGBTQ acronym? At this interactive workshop, participants will engage in activities to examine their own attitudes about bisexuality and assess their community’s welcome of bisexual people. Participants will learn about research on bisexuality, discuss a new model of sexual orientation that invites complexity, and leave with concrete strategies for making congregations safer and more welcoming to people who identify as bisexual. This workshop will be presented in a train-the-trainer format so that participants can share information with their own boards, network gatherings, and other gatherings of MCC clergy and congregations.

WORKSHOPS BY DATE/TIME

Tuesday, 5 July 2016 – 3:00 – 5:00 PM

Interested in exploring various aspects of the art of the songwriter? Join Bobby Jo Valentine for some thoughts on the craft of songwriting, crafting songs from your story through a redemptive light, and general thoughts on supporting creative art in your community. A combination of lecture, storytelling, and Q and A.

Thursday, 7 July 2016 – 2:00 – 3:30 PM

How can we ensure that Trans* and Gender Non-Conforming people will feel welcome, safe, and cherished in our congregations? Join us as we explore what it means to be Trans*/gender variant and how to help our congregations invite and celebrate such differences as part of God’s beloved community.

Virtual technology has made it possible for people to connect as well as deepen their learning and spirituality. This workshop will explore philosophical and pedagogical approaches to on-line learning as well as present some practical tools for using on-line technology.

Equipping the Saints for Social Justice WorkTime/Location: Thursday, 2:00 – 3:30 PM – Colwood 1 Track: JusticePresenters: Members of MCC’s Public Policy Team

Stewardship is about more than money; it is about how we use all of our resources to respond generously to the goodness of God. One of the wonderful resources we have in MCC is a number of churches of different sizes and different places who have worked extremely well on their stewardship. As excellent stewards, these congregations will generously share what has worked for them and lessons they have learned along the way. This workshop will provide take-home resources appropriate for any church member, but especially for lay leaders, boards, and pastors.

Do you wish your congregation would be more involved in their spiritual lives? Do you offer programs people say they want but then don’t attend? Are you stretched so thin you can’t see a way to offer additional programs? Do you need more entry points to your church? Do you want to see your congregants become more involved in ministry to others and spiritual growth for themselves? Do you want a church leadership model that is not top down? If you answered yes to any of these, this workshop is for you! We promise to offer you substantive information, usable and duplicable tools, along with practical experience. These will be your take-aways:

A new model for programming in your church

A systematic way to define and build more vibrant ministry (programming)

Guidelines for working together as a team to increase people’s participation in their own spiritual life beyond worship (All of us is smarter than one of us)

Tried and true ways to create interest in and commitment to spiritual growth and increasing depth.

Access to high quality resources already prepared and written by MCCers to get you started.

The United Methodist Church has been at a stalemate over the ordination of gays and lesbians and same-sex marriage, but a decision at the recent General Conference offers hope for a way forward. This workshop will address this ongoing debate in light of historic conversations about the leadership of African Americans and women in Methodism.

From the time of the earliest church to now, the clerical vocation remains itinerant. Clergy serve a community for a season and will be called to leave someday in order for the church and pastor to find fresh possibilities for mission. This session will allow lay and clergy alike to explore the dynamics of pastoral transition and the denominational support available. Come join the staff, faculty and mentors of OCLH transition support programs to learn more about this in-between period with its practical and archetypal value for spiritual transformation and community renewal.

Thursday, 7 July 2016 – 4:00 – 5:30 PM

So often, we think that if we could just get a great building, great staff, great programs, we could get people to “come and see” what church is about and join us. Those are all wonderful things, but what if we got out of our buildings, if all of our members were involved, if we moved out into the world around us to “go and be” the church and join God where the Spirit is already moving? That’s what it means to be a missional church, and it is not just another program, but a total transformation from the inside out, embodying here and now where God calls us to go and be as a church. This workshop is for anyone who wants a different way to think about and to be church together in our 21st century world.

Rev. Danny Givens has been an activist with the Black Lives Matter movement from its inception. He will address capacity building and sustainability in the ongoing battle for human rights and equality.

Discover where a new generation of MCC churches are now forming! This workshop will introduce the MCC Global Emerging Churches Program, describe new ways and places that MCC Emerging Churches are appearing, and participants will also meet a few of the emerging Ministry Leaders. Bring your questions to this interactive and International workshop.

This session, inspired by the recent online symposium sponsored by the Office of Formation and Leadership Development, seeks to advance MCC’s ongoing commitment to integrating sexuality and spirituality, by offering an opportunity to speak honestly about how we might tangibly address this issue in our congregations. The gathering will begin with a panel of diverse MCCers who will each speak to an issue embracing sex and spirit, followed by group discussion that will both respond to and go beyond our panelists’ remarks.

More Than General Conference: The Role of the Lay DelegateTime/Location: Thursday, 4:00 – 5:30 PM – EsquimaltTrack: LeadershipPresenters: Elder Professor Nancy Maxwell and Robert Pope

This workshop will explore the role of the Lay Delegate beyond the responsibilities of General Conference. The Lay Delegate serves as the liaison between the local church and the denomination. Being elected by the local congregation to represent the local church offers many opportunities to be a servant leader who helps to identify the connection between the local community and the worldwide movement of MCC. Effective strategies for strengthening the role of the Lay Delegate in the local congregation, the Network and the denomination will be discussed.

Rev. Jim Merritt and Rev. Jorge Rivas Delgado will be joined by other activists from around the globe, offering regional updates and strategies for dealing with opposition, the religious exemption movement, and the religious right.

This is a discernment workshop—a workshop that helps participants listen to the God of their understanding through their own life experience and knowledge of their gifts. It also helps them identify what they are most passionate about. When people are able to work their passion, their work lives are much more enjoyable and meaningful, and their work is more effective because it is infused with Spirit. Understanding one’s work as sacred calling can also strengthen and increase one’s sense of purpose, resourcefulness, and capacity for creating lasting change.

Would you like to develop a worship team that consistently produces vital and passionate worship – without getting burned out? Dr. Marcia McFee worked with the General Conference Worship Team to plan the incredible conference worship experiences. Come learn how to recruit and train worship arts teams to create inspirational, meaningful, and memorable worship.

For far too long, openly LGBTQ youth and adults were banned from the Boy Scouts of America. Over the past several years, Scouts for Equality led a public campaign to end that policy. With that era of discrimination having come to a close, we have a unique window of opportunity to bring an inclusive Scouting program to a new generation of youth. Participants will learn details of the past policies that weren’t shared publicly, gain a greater understanding of why Scouting in America has yet to become gender-integrated, and learn how their congregations can join other MCC congregations in starting inclusive Scouting programs.

Knowing that dismantling systemic racism requires the initiative and responsibility of people of European descent, the newly appointed Racial Reconciliation Working Group is charged to equip people of European descent to develop relationships of greater mutuality with peoples of colors, to increase awareness of the scope and power of white privilege within U.S. culture as well as its ongoing impact around the globe, and to develop attitudes and practices within MCC that facilitate the full inclusion of peoples of colors. Intended to be a conversation among people of European descent, this workshop is designed to begin engaging this work so essential to our emerging future.

The scenario: Two historically inclusive progressive churches on the same street, with the same core values, are having vastly different experiences. One is in decline and the other is thriving. What is going on? In this workshop we will keep it real and learn how the Spirit in Christ is turning around inclusive ministries and churches with inspiration, innovation and reignited missional imagination. Balancing the practical and gloriously impractical, we will explore current revitalization movements and ancient spiritual wisdom to become once again “the Repairers of Broken Walls and Restorers of Streets with Dwellings.” (Isaiah 58:12b)

Friday, 8 July 2016 – 1:30 – 3:00 PM

As MCC prepares to welcome a new Moderator, this workshop will provide opportunities for participants to have a Holy Conversation about leadership transitions, using the format developed by MCC Theologies Team.

Like many of our own personal finances, church funds are more and more frequently managed online. We have squares and triangles, iPads and Paypal accounts, and direct bank transfers into and out from our accounts. Our time-tested safeguards like requiring two signatures on checks, and making sure that at least two people count the offering, are no longer adequate to protect our church funds from theft. If you are a board member, pastor, or part of the administrative team at your church, this workshop is for you.

MCCers come from many walks of life… From different countries and regions within those countries, speaking many languages, of varied races, ethnicities, abilities, ages, and church experiences (or no church experience at all), with diverse identifications of gender and sexuality… And yet, we are all called to worship the One who created us all in all our beautiful diversity. Together, we will explore and experience some ways, even without big budgets or multiple staff, that we might approach worship to be intentionally multicultural and radically inclusive, to more fully embody the Beloved Community that is God’s dream. This workshop is for anyone who participates in, plans, and/or leads worship

This workshop will feature a 32 minute documentary that explores the evolution of the modern day African-American civil rights movement to engender LGBTQ equality as a key social justice issue. Subsequent to the screening of “BRAVE SPACES”, this workshop will engage in a robust and dynamic conversation on the moral imperative of the LGBTQ movement embracing racial justice, as an essential principle in our individual and collective efforts. Together, we will embrace and model the requisite courage necessary to listen and learn from each other ways to address racism and xenophobia within the LGBTQ movement towards becoming the beloved community as called for by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. All people and voices are welcomed with radical hospitality and deep respect.

In our rapidly changing world, how can leaders in MCC prepare others to move with God’s Spirit into the future? Mentoring is essential for leaders of teams, in congregations, in organizations, in movements, to help new and emerging leaders learn and grow. In mentoring others, leaders establish a relationship of trust by sharing lived experiences and wisdom. In so doing, those mentored can be encouraged and empowered to live and lead authentically and the mentors themselves are enriched as leaders. This workshop is for leaders of all kinds who want to develop their own leadership as they develop new and emerging leaders. In this interactive workshop, we will explore together the origins of mentoring, examine some examples of mentoring, and gain understanding of some of the best practices of mentoring.

Can you imagine MCC beyond church walls to connect individuals, small groups, and spiritual communities as MCC in new and exciting ways? We are creating a global MCC community, from New York to New Delhi; Capetown to Bejing and beyond. We invite you to open the door and explore MCC Oasis, “A spiritual respite in a hectic and ever-changing world.” A place where all are welcome…to learn, be inspired, seek justice, and feed their spirit; on-line, in gatherings, and in many different ways. Are you curious about this new way to BE MCC; without walls or borders? If so, come and see…

Friday, 8 July 2016 – 3:30 – 5:00 PM

MCC has been known as “The Gay Church,” “The Church With AIDS,” and “The Human Rights Church.” How are you known in your community? What is your brand and tag line? This workshop will look at the range of MCC brand images in our denomination. We will look at the MCC Brand resources that are available to all MCC pastors/leaders and explore how using common brand materials helps everyone.

How to Bring General Conference Worship HomeTime/Location: Friday, 4:30-5:00pm- Carson HallTrack: WorshipPresenters: The General Conference Worship Planning Team

Learn the techniques the General Conference Worship Team used to create and implement Worship.

Activists working with the GJI will offer updates on our movement and projects in Asia, Latin and Central America, the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and Africa, making connections with other human rights movements on the ground and providing opportunities for involvement. Learn how you and your Church can be involved in supporting those who are transforming the world in their own contexts.

Refresh and expand your HIV knowledge base. This workshop will cover: modes of transmission, prevention methods and HIV prevention science 2.0, treatment of HIV and AIDS, latest medical updates and recommended vaccinations for the general public and at risk populations

We will also explore HIV and its stigma. We will learn the definition of stigma and its ramifications in regard to HIV/AIDS, address the question, “Does HIVE stigma exist in MCC?”, examine how stigma influences and is woven into our daily lives and how those attitudes are exhibited in our churches, explore ways we can combat HIV stigma in MCC, and review a case study and testimony of how a MCC church responded to HIV/AIDS.

Does it ever seem that just when your church is making progress, something happens that sidetracks the momentum? Many churches fail to fulfill their mission because they are mired in unhealthy patterns-interpersonal relationships, lay/clergy roles, and/or communication styles. Drawing from experience in churches from 30 people to 300, let’s talk about establishing shared agreements (the easier part) and actually changing behavior long-term (the harder part).

Are our MCC congregations welcoming to the “B’s” in the LGBTQ acronym? At this interactive workshop, participants will engage in activities to examine their own attitudes about bisexuality and assess their community’s welcome of bisexual people. Participants will learn about research on bisexuality, discuss a new model of sexual orientation that invites complexity, and leave with concrete strategies for making congregations safer and more welcoming to people who identify as bisexual. This workshop will be presented in a train-the-trainer format so that participants can share information with their own boards, network gatherings, and other gatherings of MCC clergy and congregations.